A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



We know however that before the commencement of the Trias era the 

 Carboniferous strata were intensely folded, fractured and extensively de- 

 nuded, resulting in their more or less complete isolation, so that in North 

 Staffordshire we find the four detached coal basins of the Potteries, 

 Cheadle, ShafFalong and Goldsitch Moss, while the South Staffordshire 

 Coalfield is separated from the northern field by a wide expanse of 

 Triassic rocks. 



Though the coalfields of the north and south possess many points 

 in common the northern area presents the type development and will 

 therefore be described first. 



THE NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE COALFIELD 



Lower and Middle Coal-measures. Situated on the line of the great 

 Pennine uplift or along its western margin it is not surprising to find 

 this coal-bearing region complicated by numerous faults and folds. The 

 folds trend in a general north and south direction, and enclose the four 

 separate coalfields mentioned above. The Cheadle, ShafFalong and 

 Pottery Coalfields may be connected under the Trias of Caverswall, but 

 the small coalfield of Goldsitch Moss is sunk deep in a fold of Millstone 

 Grits, and removed several miles from its sister coalfields. The im- 

 portant coalfield of the Potteries can be further naturally divided into a 

 central synclinal region and a western anticlinal portion. In the latter 

 the coal seams are frequently vertical and occasionally bent on themselves; 

 in the former the coals are sometimes highly inclined but never vertical. 

 The faults, the majority of which trend north and south, are not only 

 many but of very great throw ; one, known as the Apedale Fault, tra- 

 versing the central portion of the Pottery Coalfield in a north and south 

 direction exceeds 600 yards in vertical displacement, while an even 

 larger dislocation extends along the western margin of the coalfield. The 

 faults have exerted a strong influence on the physiography of the district. 

 Thus the Apedale Fault lets in a strip of barren measures in the heart of 

 the coalfield so that the ancient town of Newcastle-under-Lyme lies in a 

 pleasant agricultural district, while immediately east and west there extends 

 the usual grimy landscape of a coal-mining district ; again, on the west a 

 large fault suddenly introduces unproductive measures, when the mining 

 industry abruptly ends. 



The Coal-measures have been sub-divided into Lower, Middle and 

 Upper; but the exact horizons at which the dividing lines should be 

 drawn have not been definitely settled. Whatever scheme is adopted the 

 lower and middle sub-divisions constitute the storehouse of the chief 

 seams, of which the most important, commencing with the Winpenny 

 Coal, about 1,200 feet above the First Grit, are grouped together. Above 

 this coal there are no less than thirty recognized seams, making a total 

 thickness of over 1 40 feet of coal. A seam towards the middle, known 

 as the Ash Coal, has been taken by some geologists as the base of the 

 middle sub-division, while another seam Bassey Mine Coal has been 



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